The Demon King’s Castle

Not long ago

Demon King Arkaz Luna Val de Archeron narrows his eyes as he stares down at the phone in his hands, trying to figure out how to use it. He’s tried to tap the screen many times before, but that doesn’t seem to do much. And while other people have tried to help him over the time since the phones were introduced, he’s determined to figure it out on his own.

But every time he tries to tap the screen with his claws, nothing happens. The screen remains black. And he can’t figure out why.

He briefly raises his head to look at the Guardian from Earth who is currently working on some strange metal container that should apparently send him into the artificial reality thing his granddaughter is currently in. Which, if he’s understanding it correctly, should be an inferior version of the universe created by Oberon.

A fake one in every meaning of the word.

Arkaz watches him work for a bit before focusing on the phone again and going back to trying to figure it out.

He’s specifically been trying to be as careful as possible so as to not damage the phone, and he’s even avoided looking at other demons using their phones. Just so that he can figure it out on his own.

But he just can’t figure it out no matter how hard he tries.

Arkaz grits his teeth as he continues trying various things. Whether pressing on the screen, pressing the buttons, or even trying to open the thing before giving up so as to not break it.

Nothing works.

How is this contraption supposed to be meant for the every day human?! It’s so-

“Um, Your Majesty,” the man in his throne room says, bringing Arkaz’s attention back to the man to find him nodding his head while his hands shake slightly. The man clearly being afraid despite his bravado. “I’ve finished setting up the pod. Would you like to use it?”

Arkaz glances at the phone, his eyes narrowed slightly in both frustration and challenge. Then he raises his head to look at the man again and says, “Very well.”

He stands up from his throne before walking over to the pod, only for the man to suddenly look at the phone and ask, “By the way, if it wouldn’t be too presumptuous of me to ask, what are you trying to do to that dead phone?”

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Arkaz freezes mid-step. Only to glance at the man, then at the phone, then back at the man again as he mutters, “Dead… phone?”

The man whose name Arkaz believes was Artificios nods his head and says, “Yeah, that phone is dead. It means it doesn’t have any charge. You need to charge it to be able to use it.”

Silence fills the throne room for several awkward seconds.

Eventually Arkaz simply says, “I see. I was trying to figure out whether or not I could charge it myself through magic.”

Artificios nods his head while turning to look at the pod and saying, “Understandable. There are plenty of human Guardians who have done the same.”

Arkaz makes a mental note to have one of the maids in the castle with electricity magic charge the phone. While acting like he knew exactly what was going on.

“To use the pod, all you have to do is lie down inside and press the button on the side. It’ll do the rest for you, Your Majesty,” the man says, seemingly not having noticed Arkaz’s nonexistent slipup.

The Demon King nods his head in understanding and does what Artificios said. Lying down within the pod and pressing the button, making the pod’s top slowly lower down before his awareness shifts to appear inside of some sort of plaza. One with five different stadiums scattered around and a few demons and humans moving about.

All of whom stiffen up in an instant upon his arrival.

Arkaz doesn’t pay them any mind though. Instead he floats up into the air before moving towards the central stadium and hovering just above the rim of the stadium, giving him a good view of the arena where children seem to be fighting each other.

The Demon King watches the competition go on for a while, seeing each of the children who are killed during it appearing again outside of the arena. Similar to how it went during the Fae Ascension Tournament.

A tournament Arkaz is not being informed about, unfortunately. No matter how many requests he gets regularly asking him how things are going.

He continues watching as his granddaughter’s cousin fights with another young child. But soon enough Arkaz’s sole attention is claimed by his granddaughter who appears floating high in the sky next to the Black Knight of Humanity. And Arkaz’s face lights up with a smile at the sight of her.

But his smile doesn’t last long as he remembers the news he originally came to tell her.

So he watches in silence from his spot above the stadium wall as the round of the competition concludes with Scarlet’s cousin – he believes her name was Aria – winning the competition entirely. Then the girl is sent to a podium for the winners where Scarlet herself awards her the trophy for winning.

Arkaz hasn’t spent almost any time at all with the young child. But he does feel a little curious about why his granddaughter seems to care so much for her.

Scarlet goes about congratulating her cousin with very few words, then she vanishes with her cousin to appear inside of some special booth high in the stadium. Only for Arkaz to sense Scarlet vanishing once more before appearing right next to him.

“Sweetie,” he says with a smile as he sees her floating up to him with a brow raised.

“I see you’ve finally got the artificial reality figured out,” she comments with more than a little amusement in her voice. “Now if you could only figure out a phone.”

Arkaz stiffens up at that before quickly changing the subject, “We have an emergency. The Red Plague planet is getting close to Earth’s sun.”

Scarlet stiffens up in return. Then she quietly mutters, “Oh.”